Prostate gland enlargement or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disease in aging men. Besides the age, the loss of Phase II detoxification enzyme, i.e. glutathione S-transferase (GSTP1) gene, and abnormal of androgen are believed to be involved in the development of the disease. The incidence of BPH is quite low in men under age 40, about 40% in men at age 50, and it almost reaches 90% at age 80, nearly 100% histochemically in men at age of 90 years old. Among them about 25% of patients need treatments either by surgery or medicine, or both, due to severe blockage of urinary tract. Obviously, numbers of patients with BPH will significantly increase as a result of the quickening life style and longer life span. Moreover, recent studies indicate that more BPH occurs in younger men.
Prostate is consisting of glands and muscles. In those tissues, phase II detoxification enzymes are often chronically inactivated with aging by unknown epigenetic reasons. Thus, the ability of cells to defense invasion of toxic materials from environment is decreased. As a result, prostate cells are inflammated or extra proliferation of noninflammated tissue, thereby becoming prostatitis or benign prostatic hyperplasia. Patients with BPH often suffer from urinary difficulty, due to the urethra squeezed by the enlarged prostate. If left untreated and unmonitored, BPH may lead to serious complications, such as frequent urination, urination difficulty, acute urina retention, urinary tract infection, bladder stone, rectal prolapse, internal hemorrhoids, sexual dysfunction, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, urinemia or even prostate cancer.
The current clinical available pharmaceutical products of BPH can be classified into three categories: 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors, alpha(1)-receptor antagonists, and natural herbal medicine—Hua Fen. Among them, the Proscar, a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor, manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc, is mainly used for the treatment of BPH. However, clinical studies indicate that Proscar is effective only for patients with relatively large volume (>40 cm3) of the prostate; otherwise the efficacy is not satisfactory. Since alpha(1)-receptor antagonists exhibit their activities by relaxation of muscles of bladder neck and tissues surrounding the prostate, it can only relieves symptoms, but not reduce volume of the enlarged prostate.
Prostatitis is another common disease in men of any age, and it is the most common in young and middle-aged men. Prostatitis can be classified as two types: acute, bacterial infected inflammation and chronic, non-bacterial infected inflammation. Major symptoms of prostatitis include urinating pain, milky urine, urinary fever, frequent urination, pain in lower abdomen; even worse, symptoms like fever or chills. Sometimes symptoms of prostatitis are similar to those of BPH. In this invention, we used GENURIN® (Flavoxate Hydrochloride) as positive control for the treatment of prostatitis. This drug is invented and manufactured by the Lifephama S.r.I, Italy, after its research for many years. GENURIN® is indicated to treat bladder and protatic diseases: symptoms like urinary difficulty, urinary urgency, night urine, pain in haunch bone etc. caused by cystitis and bladder pain, prostatitis, urethritis, bladder urethritis etc. Clinical studies have shown that this drug is rapidly absorbed after orally administration, and distribute into various tissues/organs, and eliminated from urine. It selectively acts on smooth muscles of genitourinary system, thereby relieves bladder symptoms caused by irritations.
Incidence of skin cancer is relatively low in Chinese, however it is a common malignancy in Caucasians. Skin cancer may occur in any part of the body, about 80% occur in the skin of the face, head, neck and induce abnormality and danger. UV light, mostly coming from the sun, is a major factor to cause skin cancer, thus theoretically, there are no differences in incidence of skin cancer between races, skin categories, ages, occupations and locations. Everyone has the possibility to suffer from skin cancer. Currently, there are not many available drugs for the treatment of skin cancer. However patients with skin cancer are increasing year by year based on related media. A report from WHO in July 2006 indicated that there were 60,000 people died, mostly suffering from skin cancer, due to overexposure to sunlight every year. Among them 48,000 cases were melanoma, and 12,000 cases were other types of skin cancer. Thus, development of new types of pharmaceutical products and dietary supplements to prevent and/or treat skin cancer is highly warranted.
In summary, prostate diseases are major diseases to affect men health. These diseases will seriously impact our society which is turning into an aged society. At the same time, more and more patients are suffering from skin cancer. Innovative and effective pharmaceutical products or dietary supplements, food, cosmetics to treat and/or prevent those disorders are, therefore, very much needed.